This is a midrange-control deck that seeks to disrupt your opponent in the early turns, play
Oath of Gideon
, Lingering Souls, or
Jotun Grunt
then follow it up with Koth of the Hammer or Sorin, Solemn Visitor. The deck is designed to abuse planeswalkers that ultimate very quickly with
Oath of Gideon
and have ultimates that take over the game. Here is the rationale for the different aspects of the deck design:
Aspect 1: Planeswalkers. Koth of the Hammer and Sorin, Solemn Visitor can ultimate 1 turn after you play them with
Oath of Gideon
out. These are your win conditions AND your source of card advantage. I often have 2 walkers out and am thus effectively playing 3 cards a turn.
a. Koth of the Hammer: If you ultimate him and you're ahead, at parity, or a little behind you win. The majority of decks, in the majority of situations, can't kill you with creatures with his emblem out and the rest of the damage not used to kill creatures they play goes to the face. He is the main threat in the deck. He also makes all of your lands beneficial draws. In my initial testing I've won most games with 4/4's and my opponents trying desperately to kill my planeswalkers. Every single time I've ultimated him my opponent has conceded.
b. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Similarly, creature decks can rarely beat a one-sided Abyss. The amount of life he gains you and increased clock he contributes to your tokens are also major upsides. Playing him the turn after Koth of the Hammer then swinging for 5 lifelink is also very strong. His weakness is not being very aggressive by himself and bad if you have no board.
Aspect 2: Burn. This deck runs 21 points mainboard. You need the Lightning Helix because of the damage a manabase with 21 mountains does to you so why not take advantage of it? I've burnt people out in situations where they finally dealt with my planeswalkers numerous times. It's also good at killing apposing planeswalkers (Karn's minus ability and Ugin's -4 to kill my planeswalkers puts both of them at 3 loyalty.) 7 Burn spells + 5 more removal makes beating aggro decks pretty easy.
Aspect 3: High Density of Hate Cards. This deck either a) naturally runs certain hate because of its maindeck construction or b) is able to accommodate lots of hate without damaging its main plans.
a)
Jotun Grunt
: This is both a white Tarmogoyf and maindeck graveyard hate. You have 14 fetches and 19 other 1 and 2 drop spells to fuel your own GY to help keep him out. If you aren't racing a combo deck you want to try and get 3 full turns out of him minimum (which still allows for turn 2 plays). He's solid as a clock against Goryo's Vengeance, Storm, Jund, Abzan, Grixis, and Delver!
b) Lifegain: The deck does damage to itself but runs 8 maindeck life gain cards and 2 more in the sideboard. When you add in all of the removal it gets really hard for aggro to do anything. The removal density is also backbreaking for Infect.
c) Affinity Hate: You run Lingering Souls, Stony Silence, and the life gain isn't too shabby either. Add 11 strong removal spells (plus Anger of the Gods) to this and you're good to go. This deck can certainly win game one against Affinity.
d) Blood Moon and
Slaughter Games
: These are concessions to the combo matchups that midrange decks always struggle against.
